§ Lord Norrieasked Her Majesty's Government:
What progress has been made in developing measures to control vehicle speeds through villages.
The Earl of CaithnessSince the announcement last July that the Department of Transport was to take action jointly with the County Surveyors' Society, a working group has been established on which the Scottish Office and the Welsh Office are also represented. The group has met several times, and has produced an interim report. A number of schemes have been identified in villages on trunk and county roads across England, Wales and Scotland on which a variety of traffic calming and related measures are to be introduced to constrain vehicle speeds. These schemes will be monitored through the summer and autumn. The results will be evaluated, and will feed into a final report from the working group which I am expecting early next year. This work will provide the basis for detailed guidance to highway authorities on the measures which prove most effective. A leaflet has been produced describing the main features of the working group's deliberations and their interim report. This has been deposited in the Library, and copies are available on request from the department's traffic policy division.